William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” illustrates an extremely orthodox patriarchal social structure, confiding gender on a hierarchal order of privilege. The play’s gendered narrative parallels the gendered binaries as experienced by Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era. These binaries are critiqued by Shakespeare through the Athenian female characters, who are presented as subordinately submissive, male-abiding “possessions” owned by their fathers, brothers, or husbands as expressed by law. The script illustrates the biases present in the methods of masculine privilege, egotistically utilized by the dominant male to enforce his will whether through assertive action or by exploiting the privileges he retains through the structure.
The exploitation of said structure is depicted though the Hermia’s father Egeus, in Act I of the play:
Egeus: I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her;
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.” ( I. i. 43-45).
Egeus sustains that he has no concern for his daughter‘s wellbeing or happiness, insisting that Theseus, the Duke of Athens, should carry out her execution if she refuses to marry the man he has chosen for her. Hermia is objectified as her fathers property, which the two Athenians Lysander and Demetrius desire to posses through marital “purchase.”
Theseus is perceived as more sympathetic to Hermia, asking her what she desires, before informing her what her options are, if she still refuses to marry her father’s suitor:
Theseus: Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, Question you desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,
To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint
hymns to the cold fruitless moon. (I i 65-73)
Theseus offers Hermia a choice her father had not. Instead of death, she could enter a convent and devout the rest of her life to religion and celibacy; he declares she must: “abjure for ever the society of men.” Making the alternative of the convent resemble a lifelong prison sentence.
By calling it “the society of men,” Theseus fortifies the presence of the male dominant institution. He also indicates that said institution could only be eluded by renouncing her female identity, as defined through the male interpretation of the feminine: becoming a barren woman of faith. Arguably a faith which was initially employed as a patriarchal tool, eradicating the more feminist based pagan faiths, and enforcing the doctrines of the masculine monotheist god. Historically, becoming a nun was the only option for women who did not enter in to marriage, as without the financial and physical protection of a male guardian, Elizabethan women did not have many social and occupational alternatives to choose from.
Furthermore, the sanctioned and childless prospect of joining a convent, is a thoroughly calculated patriarchal alternative, as the feminine gender is valued and defined by her physical ability to bear children, and by becoming a nun sh
e is stripped of her physicality. She instead “Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessdness.” (I.i.78) Theseus applies the striking image of the rose to symbolize women, claiming: “But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d” (I.i.76) implying that a woman who fulfills her role as wife in marriage, is more gratified “Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn.” (I.i.77) In other words, than a woman who elects to follow the celibate route of a nun, or the virgin thorn, experiences a life of agony and suffering. Moreover, distilling the rose of it’s perfume signifies sexual pleasure: As a rose’s perfume is extracted and savored, a woman’s body is likewise obtained and savored.
The rose “withers,” as if deprived of water or sunlight, growing and dying “in single blessdness” signifying a brief life, overlooked and solitary. Though she would be “in shady cloister mew’d,” indicating the nuns, like chickens, would be cooped up in their confinement. The lack of male interaction is said to leave them feeling forlorn and isolated from others: single and never coupled.
Theseus acknowledges the limitations and implications of joining a convent, urging her to be sure of her decision. He seems to consider her chance for a marriage, though not an entirely consensual marriage, to be the most propitious of the two options presented. Nonetheless, Theseus does echo the threat of death to Hermia, ironically utilizing the threats of his own patriarchal laws to nudge her towards what he evaluates as the opportune decision:
Theseus: Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to you father’s will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
Or on Diana’s altar to protest,
For aye, austerity and single life. (I i 85 - 90)
Hermia is trapped in the context of privilege. She is robbed of her choice, and therefore limited to the ethics of the patriarchy. This limitation objectifies Hermia, rendering her no more important than a piece of property. Choice is one of the strongest elements a person can deprive another, and one of the typical advantages mostly taken by men away from women in order to repress them.
The denial of a women’s choice is an ingrained trait of patriarchy, which frequently leads up to repression and forced rebellion. The freedom of choice and the choices given to a person based on privilege isn’t grasped until the person is denied an their ability to make said choice. Hermia’s limitation leads to her ultimate rebellion and triumph against the system; Indicating Shakespeare’s belief in one’s ability to revolutionize the system to one’s desires, as Hermia does by running away into the forest, where there exists a sense of a matriarchy; and where the fairies’ improvised shift towards a more balanced and egalitarian love quartet, unleashes Hermia from her father’s suitors affections, ultimately unleashing Hermia from her patriarchal confinements.Welcome to TheKuwaitiFemme.com
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